I recently received an invitation to the Pilot Pen Clinic in Singapore, but I am absolutely disappointed because… I WON’T BE AROUND AT THAT TIME TO ATTEND IT! Damn, why do such exciting events always clash with my business trips! The Pilot Pen Clinic will be held from 27-29 July 2016, and the esteemed Namiki Nib Specialist, Mr. Atushi Takizawa from Japan, will be present to “diagnose and heal” Namiki pens. Interestingly, he is also known as a “Pen Doctor”, since he specializes in servicing the pens. According to Pilot, a Pen Doctor is a “highly experienced nib specialist who will do his best to service your fountain pen to a reasonable condition within the allocated timeframe. Here is the background information about the Pen Doctor and Namiki Maki-e, (all information and the picture are from Pilot Singapore): A doctor of a different kind – A Pen Doctor, Mr Atushi Takizawa Mr Atushi Takizawa, Namiki’s Nib Specialist from Japan joined PILOT Corporation (formally called The PILOT PEN CO. LTD) in 1981. After 14 years of career in mould designing for fountain pens and jewellery, he joined the tip manufacturing section and has acquired vast knowledge and its technique. Since 2005, […]
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Click, click! Pilot introduces annually some new designs for their Capless retractable fountain pen, and this year they have just unveiled 3 new designs. Two of them are the Kasuri designs as seen above, in green and red. Kasuri refers to fabric that has been woven with dyed fibres that create specific patterns and motifs in the fabric, particularly in the 18th century. The two Pilot Capless Kasuri pens show a simple repeating pattern that is not too flashy, and is subtle enough for everyday use. I wonder why they chose these two colours – might there be some link to the Chinese traditional “red for male, green for female” symbolism? The Pilot Capless Kasuri pens have nibs that come in fine, medium and broad sizes, and are 18K rhodium plated, along with the trims of the pen. In addition, Pilot has also introduced a less traditional-looking, and more modern variant which is the Pilot Capless Midnight Blue. This pen boasts a striking blue colour, with matte black trims which fit the description of being a “Midnight Blue”. This pen looks a little more masculine and might attract those who enjoy a contemporary and sleek-looking pen. The blue barrel has a […]
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I bought the Montblanc Rouge et Noir ballpoint pen. Before any of you scream at me for buying a non-fountain pen – and a BALLPOINT PEN in fact, let me try to redeem myself by explaining why I bought it. 🙂 Truth be told, I do have a great many fountain pens, but how many do I actually use – and how many cartridges or converters do I actually finish using – in a year? Probably less than my fingers can count. It’s quite unfortunate that I don’t get to use fountain pens because pretty much the only time I get to use a pen would be at work, where I need to scribble in a designated laboratory book, of which the paper I wish I could burn. In fact, most of my time is spent at taking notes in this one and only book, so I never really got to use fountain pens that much at work. Outside of work, I don’t tend to write much. The only journal I keep is this website. I love my fountain pens, but I don’t get to use them enough. So 2 weeks ago, I went to the Montblanc anniversary private event in […]
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Stabilo Singapore has provided me for a review their EASYbirdy fountain pen, one of their first fountain pens which they have launched this year. It is an interesting pen with a feature that I haven’t seen before in other fountain pens – the nib angle can be adjusted using the red tool in the picture. The red tool is actually a device where you can plug into the cartridge area and unscrew the nib part of the pen, after which you can adjust the nib angle in 3 different places to find your preferred one, and then tighten it again. To explain the mechanism better, I have made a video introducing the pen and its special nib adjusting mechanism, as well as a brief review of the writing experience. Oh, and I should mention that this particular version that I received is a left-handed version, which means that the ergonomic grip on the pen section is shaped nicely for a leftie to use. That’s kind of them! Although, to be honest, I am so lazy that I don’t actually bother to change the writing posture of my hand. 🙁 If you’re looking to give a fountain pen to a child […]
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Just a short and brief update today: Cody from The Pen Haul has invited me to guest post on his website, ThePenHaul.com. I took a long time, honestly, but I managed to come up with a decent post to contribute! I wrote about my journey in my sub-collection of small fountain pens. Yep, I have this strange fascination for small fountain pens. They just look so cute. Here’s a picture: CLICK HERE TO READ MY GUEST POST: INTRIGUED BY SMALL FOUNTAIN PENS Thank you Cody, for letting me guest post on The Pen Haul! It’s an honour!
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Thanks to the help from C.H., a Singapore Fountain Pen Lover and a friend of mine, I got my hands on this interesting Lanbo 008 fountain pen (temporarily). He had borrowed it from his colleague who also agreed to lend it to me to play with. Don’t be intimidated by the dragon’s head embellishment on the clip – the fountain pen itself look relatively simple and harmless. As usual, let me start by talking a bit about the pen and its design, before going into the cleaning mechanism. It is black with gold accents and the barrel has a nice lotus flower design that is placed in the centre, but does not take up a lot of space on the barrel. The only other interesting design on the pen is really just the dragon on the clip, gold with ruby-red eyes. Not real rubies, of course. On the cap, between two gold bands, is the brand name in Chinese. 蓝泊 (pinyin: lán pō) translates somewhat to “blue berth”; “berth” as in the place where a boat stops. The other side of the cap shows the brand name in English, “Lanbo”. The nib is a two-tone gold and silver coloured nib. […]
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A while ago I had published my Rohrer & Klingner (I will just call it R&K in the rest of the post) series overview from parts 1-6, covering 3 R&K inks in each part. I love manufacturers who make a greatly attractive series of ink colours, but then again, we are all spoilt for choice, and a variety of ink colours can make choosing the “ideal” one quite difficult. But call me picky or not, sometimes I am targeting that one specific ink colour which eludes me, despite the sheer variety of inks available on the market! Before the R&K ink series, I had also published a 4-part series of the Pilot Iroshizuku inks, 24 colours in total. For a number of those inks, I managed to spot some sheen very easily. I don’t know if this is characteristic of Japanese inks or not, but I hadn’t managed to spot much sheen in other inks, especially those from R&K. I wasn’t convinced that R&K inks have totally no sheen, so I decided to do a little experiment on my own. DO ROHRER & KLINGNER INKS HAVE SHEEN? For my ink swab records, I usually made a single ink layer followed […]
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The Levenger L-tech 3.0 came in a silver box. Something cheap made well enough to be customised, but just a box. appearances do not matter to me here, it has been tossed carelessly as I did not deem it worthy of a photo. How it is presented looks costly, but gaudy and too much of a resemblance to a metal brief case filled with cash like on a low budget D-list movie. It is jarringly out of place, I’m no triad boss, it is not a discreet box. Diagram by me, like I used MS Paint, I made this with pro Photoshop skillz. Mad SKILLZ bro. Lie. I can’t Photoshop. Next. Photo sources as listed. Opening it, I nodded my first approval– thorough enough, and not too expensive for what I paid, a mostly brass alloy stick nestled in dense foam with not just one, but two stylus tips. One meshy and the other silicon-y Well, for a fountain pen, it wasn’t too expensive, retailing at the Levenger’s site for US$99. Levenger also sells other pens, associated paraphernalia from paper to, quite oddly, wallets and wristwatches. Are they going to be a department store? At the point of my first […]
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[[ADVERTORIAL]] Think of minimalistic fountain pens, and the brand name of Lamy is called to mind. The latest fountain pen range that has emerged from Lamy’s Premium trove is the Lamy imporium. Designed by Mario Bellini, the award-winning imporium comes in 3 designs: the Lamy imporium TiPt (titanium matt), Lamy imporium BlkBlk (black matt/black), and the Lamy imporium BlkAu (black matt/gold). This year, the pen has won the iF Design Award in the “Writing Instruments” category. Impeccably engineered from the nib to the clip, the pen features a straight-lined body which is guilloche all around. The section towards the nib has guilloche patterns all the way across the section. The nib itself is a two-tone nib, made of 14K gold across the slit to the tip, and the rest of the nib being PVD-coated (PVD stands for Physical Vapour Deposition). Contrasting the guilloche body is the smooth screw-off cap featuring a glossy clip, either in platinum, gold, or black (PVD). Here are the 3 different models available: Model 093: LAMY imporium TiPt The Lamy imporium TiPt fountain pen has a titanium matt body, refined with PVD. It is accented by a glossy clip made of polished galvanized platinum. It retails in Singapore […]
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Being of Chinese descent, I always celebrate New Year’s day twice in quick succession. The first New Year is, of course, the one most people know of, which occurs on Jan 1. The second new year, usually occurring within 2 months from Jan 1, is the Lunar New Year. Old Chinese traditions follow the lunar calendar which places the turn of the year during the beckoning of spring. This year, the Lunar New Year falls on Feb 8 and both the 8th and the 9th are public holidays in Singapore. HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR, all of you out there who celebrate it! If you’re into Chinese zodiacs and all that, this year is ushered in by the Monkey. There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac and Monkey is the 9th animal. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the Monkey has not predicted anything related to fountain pens for me this year, so it’s up to me to set my own resolutions! Adjusting to my own lifestyle To be perfectly honest, I have had very few chances to use fountain pens on a daily basis over the past couple of years. Most of my chances of writing, if any at all, are when […]
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